Two weeks into his new post as Leader of the Opposition, Wayne Furbert is tired but excited.

Indeed the two states seem to be linked as Mr. Furbert confesses he is up between 4.30 and 5.30 a.m. most days.

?I can?t sleep,? he says.

He knows that winning the next election for the United Bermuda Party will take a lot of work.

New Year?s resolutions to go to the gym have gone out the window and his business is taking a backseat as politics becomes a full-time job.

Although he has moved into the official Opposition leader?s office opposite the Cabinet building, Mr. Furbert pledges not to be desk bound.

Pointing to the street he says: ?I am not working from here, I am working from there.

?That?s where you will see me. I will come in and sign some letters here but I am going to hit streets from Somerset to St. George?s, walking and talking to people.

?That?s where you will find the real answers. When I was Minister of Transport I used to listen to talk shows and people in the street and implement their suggestions.?

He says his experience of winning and losing in marginal Hamilton Parish has honed his political skills. ?You have to canvass a lot and talk to people. I find it very easy to work in a marginal. I couldn?t work elsewhere. Winning a marginal is a sweet victory.?

Indeed he has been walking the Hamilton hills, campaigning with the likes of Dr. John Stubbs, since he was 14. His father Calworth was chairman of Hamilton West branch.

?It?s part of me to talk to people.?

Indeed he is frustrated at not talking to more people since he became leader.

?There have been hundreds of calls I haven?t been able to return.

?That hurts me because I love to talk to people. I am getting less sleep now.

?I have a passionate love for the people of Bermuda which keeps me going.?

He welcomes input from political opposites including former PLP MP Arthur Hodgson, who is a cousin.

?We talk a lot, I may not agree with everything he says. If I did, he?d be me. He called to congratulate me.

?I will take advice from people outside my own political sway,? says Mr. Furbert who has even offered to have a prominent PLP politician or supporter in his first Cabinet.

Mr. Furbert has also put out the feelers to Mr. Hodgson?s sister, Eva, as he tries to work on healing race relations and helping people reach their full potential.

Progress is being made on race with blacks reaching more prominent positions, said Mr. Furbert, who abhors the use of racial rhetoric by the PLP to help sway the vote in 2003 when it said UBP electors would be voting to return to the plantation.

Things have moved on with even hard-core PLP supporters, who voted on race and family tradition, questioning their actions after Government failures, believes Mr. Furbert, who said the UBP?s goals of prosperity, good housing and a crime free environment are universal.

Sustainable development is also a key issue which could see residents losing some of the comforts they enjoyed.

His party has already advocated higher rise homes in certain zones where it won?t interrupt the landscape.

Curbs on people abusing the one-car-per-household rule through spurious use of business vans could help ease the traffic problem, suggests the 49-year-old father-of-two.

With the next election possibly two years away, Mr. Furbert has been reshuffling his team.

The move saw all the key posts changed, as Maxwell Burgess was promoted to Home Affairs and Patricia Gordon-Pamplin promoted to Finance while their predecessors Michael Dunkley and Grant Gibbons were dropped or demoted.

It meant fewer white faces in the in big ministries, but Mr. Furbert denied it was a race-based move.

?Mr. Dunkley will play a very key role in working with me in the party itself. I will be calling on Michael to do a lot of things to pull the country together.?

Mr. Furbert is also having to adapt to a new role.

?I have enjoyed it to be honest. It?s been refreshing to look at it on this side. Now the buck stops at my door step as far as the Opposition is concerned.

?I used to be in my own little cocoon, now I have to look at the broader picture to prepare the party for the next election.?

Now at the helm of the party he has supported throughout his life, Mr. Furbert said says he doesn?t think he will lead the party as long as John Swan.

?One thing about me is I will recognise very early when the public and my colleagues say enough is enough.?

He has read a lot of leadership books although his favourite phrase is borrowed from the Nike ad: ?Just do it!?

He applies the term to fixing Bermuda?s lasting housing and race problems and on the need for economic empowerment.

?People are not caught up in parties, they are caught up in visions.?

He lists such diverse figures as Nelson Mandela and Ronald Reagan as those who had put forward a dream.

?Vision comes before party names. We have to stop playing people for fools. People are much more politically in tune in Bermuda nowadays.

?They are tired of the jargon politicians use in general. I don?t want to leave the political arena with people thinking, Wayne Furbert was just another politician.?

Asked how he would handle exposing a colleague who was proved to be less than honest, he said he has already spoken to his party about the need to do things the right way.

?We are not squeaky clean, all of us have fallen short somewhere along the line.

?But under my administration, I will try to bring some decency and order, integrity and honesty.?